Strock Warns Against Returning to the Old Lebanon Border Formula
Israeli minister Orit Strock argues that Israel must not again rely on UNIFIL or the Lebanese army to secure the northern border, saying they failed to stop Hezbollah’s buildup in southern Lebanon. She says residents of border communities such as Zarit, Shlomi, Adamit, Hanita, Avivim, Dovev, Misgav Am and Manara live under daily sirens and drone alerts, and are asking whether the IDF will stay or withdraw.
In her account, for years those residents warned about tunnels, observation posts, Iranian money flowing into Lebanese villages, and the large force Hezbollah was constructing. She says the country preferred the comfort of quiet and ignored the signs, only to discover what she calls a “machine of destruction” built over 17 years under the cover of calm. According to Strock, the IDF is now exposing tunnels dozens of meters deep and kilometers long, thousands of weapons, raid plans, and homes that were in fact terrorist outposts.
Strock says UN Security Council Resolution 1701 after the Second Lebanon War effectively outsourced Israel’s security to UNIFIL and the Lebanese army, and that the arrangement failed. She says the IDF previously uncovered and destroyed some infrastructure in Operation Northern Shield in the fall of 2025, but was forced to leave because of political circumstances, while much of Hezbollah’s infrastructure remained and the group kept trying to rebuild.
She says the ceasefire framework later allowed the IDF to keep striking emerging threats across the border, but concludes that terrorism cannot be stopped from outside and that Lebanon’s army lacks both the capability and the will to disarm Hezbollah. Strock says the current approach of operating inside southern Lebanon with IDF forces alone is the right one, claims the army controls more than 600,000 square kilometers of southern Lebanon, and insists the area must remain under sole Israeli military responsibility. She also relayed a request from the family of Staff Sgt. Ohad Yaari, who asked the public to light an extra Shabbat candle and do one additional good deed this Friday evening in his memory.
